32 research outputs found
The Education Premium in Canada and the United States
It is well known that in the United States the education premium--the ratio of the earnings of university graduates to the earnings of high school graduates--has risen sharply in the last twenty years. Some Canadian economists and policy makers presume the same fact holds in Canada. Since so much of modern growth theory and micro and macroecomomic policy turns on the education premium, it is important for social scientists and policy makers to know what has actually happened to the education premium. This paper argues that on the basis of available evidence over the last twenty years the premium has been constant or has fallen in Canada.education premium
WAGES in CANADA: SCF, SLID, LFS and the Skill Premium
For the years 1981 to 1997 the Survey of Consumer Finances served as the main source of information about the earnings of individuals, households and families. The Survey of Labour Income Dynamics, begun in 1993, was intended to replace and to improve upon the SCF. The Labour Force Survey which began releasing earnings information in 1997 (the last year of the SCF) is a second alternative for extending historical earnings data to the present day. This paper examines the extent to which either of these two surveys can be used to extend the SCF series to more recent times. Neither survey comes off as satisfactory in all respects as an extension of SCF earnings data though if one's purposes are more limited, such as studying the education premium, then merging results from the SCF and SLID seems a reasonable way to proceed. It is not possible here to assess the ability of SLID or LFS to extend the SCF for other applications. But this method could easily be adapted to address other similar questions.earnings; education premium; SLID; SCF
Cohort, Year and Age Effects in Canadian Wage Data
We use Canadian SCFs 1971-1993 to study the wages of full-time, full-year male and female workers. Median real wages of 24-year-old males without a university degree fell by 25% between 1978 and 1993. For 24-year-old females the decline was more modest and reversed in 1987, but real wages in 1993 were still significantly lower than they were in 1978. We investigate whether these changes are permanent âcohortâ effects or more temporary âyearâ effects. Graphs of median wages against year and age indicate some periods where year effects are more prominent than cohort effects and other periods where the reverse is true. We then compare the results from two models, one assigning the trends to year effects, the other assigning them to cohort effects, and use these models to produce real wage projections.
The Education Premium in Canada and the United States
It is well known that in the United States the education premium--the ratio of the earnings of university graduates to the earnings of high school graduates--has risen sharply in the last twenty years. Some Canadian economists and policy makers presume the same fact holds in Canada. Since so much of modern growth theory and micro and macroecomomic policy turns on the education premium, it is important for social scientists and policy makers to know what has actually happened to the education premium. This paper argues that on the basis of available evidence over the last twenty years the premium has been constant or has fallen in Canada.education premium
Stellar structure and compact objects before 1940: Towards relativistic astrophysics
Since the mid-1920s, different strands of research used stars as "physics
laboratories" for investigating the nature of matter under extreme densities
and pressures, impossible to realize on Earth. To trace this process this paper
is following the evolution of the concept of a dense core in stars, which was
important both for an understanding of stellar evolution and as a testing
ground for the fast-evolving field of nuclear physics. In spite of the divide
between physicists and astrophysicists, some key actors working in the
cross-fertilized soil of overlapping but different scientific cultures
formulated models and tentative theories that gradually evolved into more
realistic and structured astrophysical objects. These investigations culminated
in the first contact with general relativity in 1939, when J. Robert
Oppenheimer and his students George Volkoff and Hartland Snyder systematically
applied the theory to the dense core of a collapsing neutron star. This
pioneering application of Einstein's theory to an astrophysical compact object
can be regarded as a milestone in the path eventually leading to the emergence
of relativistic astrophysics in the early 1960s.Comment: 83 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the European Physical Journal
Magnetoluminescence
Pulsar Wind Nebulae, Blazars, Gamma Ray Bursts and Magnetars all contain
regions where the electromagnetic energy density greatly exceeds the plasma
energy density. These sources exhibit dramatic flaring activity where the
electromagnetic energy distributed over large volumes, appears to be converted
efficiently into high energy particles and gamma-rays. We call this general
process magnetoluminescence. Global requirements on the underlying, extreme
particle acceleration processes are described and the likely importance of
relativistic beaming in enhancing the observed radiation from a flare is
emphasized. Recent research on fluid descriptions of unstable electromagnetic
configurations are summarized and progress on the associated kinetic
simulations that are needed to account for the acceleration and radiation is
discussed. Future observational, simulation and experimental opportunities are
briefly summarized.Comment: To appear in "Jets and Winds in Pulsar Wind Nebulae, Gamma-ray Bursts
and Blazars: Physics of Extreme Energy Release" of the Space Science Reviews
serie
Supermassive Binaries and Extragalactic Jets
Some quasars show Doppler shifted broad emission line peaks. I give new
statistics of the occurrence of these peaks and show that, while the most
spectacular cases are in quasars with strong radio jets inclined to the line of
sight, they are also almost as common in radio-quiet quasars. Theories of the
origin of the peaks are reviewed and it is argued that the displaced peaks are
most likely produced by the supermassive binary model. The separations of the
peaks in the 3C 390.3-type objects are consistent with orientation-dependent
"unified models" of quasar activity. If the supermassive binary model is
correct, all members of "the jet set" (astrophysical objects showing jets)
could be binaries.Comment: 31 pages, PostScript, missing figure is in ApJ 464, L105 (see
http://www.aas.org/ApJ/v464n2/5736/5736.html
Have Superheavy Elements been Produced in Nature?
We discuss the possibility whether superheavy elements can be produced in
Nature by the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process. To this end we have
performed fully dynamical network r-process calculations assuming an
environment with neutron-to-seed ratio large enough to produce superheavy
nuclei. Our calculations include two sets of nuclear masses and fission
barriers and include all possible fission channels and the associated fission
yield distributions. Our calculations produce superheavy nuclei with A ~ 300
that however decay on timescales of days.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure
Viewpoint: Measuring the wellâbeing of the poor with income or consumption: a Canadian perspective
There is a long tradition of using consumption measures derived from Statistics Canada's household expenditures surveys to study material well-being, inequality, and poverty. We offer an introduction to this research. Income and consumption measures give different pictures of the patterns of material well-being in Canada, but the differences are not as large as in the US. We also provide a comparison to Meyer and Sullivan's results on data quality. Canadian expenditure surveys are of high quality. Unique aspects of these surveys (variation in quality control measures over time and the possibility of comparing to income tax data) provide important insights into the quality of survey data on income and consumption. Il existe une longue tradition d'utilisation de mesures de consommation (dĂ©rivĂ©es de l'enquĂȘte des dĂ©penses des mĂ©nages de Statistiques Canada) pour mesurer le bien-ĂȘtre matĂ©riel, l'inĂ©galitĂ© et la pauvretĂ©. Les auteurs prĂ©sentent ces recherches. Les mesures de revenus et de consommation donnent des portraits diffĂ©rents des patterns de bien-ĂȘtre matĂ©riel au Canada, mais les diffĂ©rences ne sont pas aussi importantes qu'aux Etats-Unis. On prĂ©sente une comparaison avec les rĂ©sultats de Meyer et Sullivan sur la qualitĂ© des donnĂ©es. Les enquĂȘtes sur les dĂ©penses sont de haute qualitĂ© au Canada. Certains aspects uniques de ces enquĂȘtes (variation dans les mesures de contrĂŽle de qualitĂ© dans le temps et possibilitĂ© de comparer les donnĂ©es dĂ©rivĂ©es des rapports d'impĂŽt sur le revenu) fournissent des aperçus importants sur la qualitĂ© des donnĂ©es d'enquĂȘtes sur le revenu et la consommation. © Canadian Economics Association